7+ Frightening Facts About George A. Romero’s ‘Night of the Living Dead’

George A. Romero’s 1968 masterpiece Night of the Living Dead is a landmark of modern cinema. Without it, we may not have recent hits like 28 Days Later or The Walking Dead

Night of the Living Dead turns 50 this year, and in honor of the low-budget masterpiece that changed the face of horror films, here are some facts about the film.

1. The original ideas were quite different

Photo Credit: Janus Films

Imagine this: the original idea for Night of the Living Dead was for the film to be an alien comedy. In 1967, Romero, writer John A. Russo, and actor Rudy Rucci all worked at a commercial film company in Pittsburgh called Latent Image. The three men thought they should try their hand at making a feature film.

Russo suggested a film about hot-rodding teenage aliens that visit Earth and cause trouble with the help of a pet from outer space. That idea wouldn’t work due to budget constraints, so Russo came up with an idea about a runaway boy who stumbles upon a field of corpses under glass that were rotting and would be consumed by aliens. Romero liked the flesh-eating angle but ditched the rest.

2. Romero was heavily inspired by I Am Legend

Romero admitted that he basically “ripped off” Richard Matheson’s horror novel I Am Legend, combining it with the flesh-eating angle that Russo had come up with. Romero came up with about 40 pages that Russo loved, including the opening in the cemetery, and then went to work on the script that would eventually become Night of the Living Dead.

3. Everything, including the blood, was made on the cheap

Photo Credit: Janus Films

Night of the Living Dead was made for less than $150,000, so everything needed to be done cheaply. This included the blood for the film. Because the film was shot in black and white, red ink and chocolate syrup were both used for blood onscreen. In the scene where Kyra Schon ate her father’s corpse, they used leftover crew lunches of hamburgers and meatball sandwiches smeared with chocolate syrup.

4. An error caused the film to be in the public domain

The film is in the public domain, but only because of a big mistake. The film’s distributors wanted to release it under the title Night of the Flesh Eaters. There was a 1964 film called The Flesh Eaters, and lawyers associated with that film threatened to sue.

The title ended up being changed to Night of the Living Dead. Editors did not add copyright notices to the beginning or end credits of the film, so, even though Romero and his team have fought in court, the film remains in the public domain.

5. Romero and Russo made cameos

Director Romero and writer Russo both appear in Night of the Living Dead. Russo played a zombie that got hit with a tire iron and Romero portrayed a reporter in the Washington, D.C. scenes.

6. One actor fought against an alternative ending

Photo Credit: Janus Films

Duane Jones played Ben, the African-American hero of the film. Ben survives the night but is shot dead by a posse and tossed into a fire. Jones fought against a happier ending.

Jones said: “I convinced George that the black community would rather see me dead than saved, after all that had gone on, in a corny and symbolically confusing way. The heroes never die in American movies. The jolt of that, and the double jolt of the hero being black seemed like a double-barreled whammy.”

7. Fire!

Three people set themselves on fire during the making of the film. The infamous cemetery zombie, played by actor Bill Hinzman, and writer John A. Russo both volunteered to be set on fire to make the zombie attack scenes more realistic. Both of their fire scenes went according to plan.

One unexpected fire occurred when a crew member named Gary Streiner added more fuel to a chair that needed to be set on fire for a scene. A hot ember ended up in his gas can and set Streiner on fire. He was not seriously hurt.

8. Duane Jones rewrote his own dialogue

Photo Credit: Janus Films

The character of Ben was originally written as a truck driver with a rough personality, but Jones revised his dialogue to reflect how he felt the character should be played.

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Did Candy Corn Really Used to be Chicken Feed?

Candy corn: people either love it or hate it. However you feel about the classic Halloween treat, I bet you don’t know where it came from, do you? You might think that it’s just little pieces of sugar shaped like corn, but the truth is way more surprising.

Photo Credit: Unsplash,Dane Deaner

The origins of the candy are a little spotty, but it seems to date to the 1880s, when candy companies made mellowcreme into all kinds of shapes, including pumpkins, turnips, and various agricultural products. At that time, farmers made up about half of American workers, so companies geared their candy toward kids who lived on farms.

Photo Credit: Flickr,Juushika Redgrave

Wunderle was the first company to sell the multi-colored candy corn, but the Goelitz Candy Company was the first to popularize the now ubiquitous treat, around 1889. Goelitz marketed candy corn as “Chicken Feed” because before World War I most Americans didn’t eat corn, it was strictly for farm animals.

During the lean years of WWI, wheat shortages caused many Americans to begin using corn-related foods as a cooking staple. After the war and until the 1950s, candy corn became known as a “penny candy” that kids (and adults with a sweet tooth) could buy in bulk. And it wasn’t strictly associated with Halloween. People also ate candy corn at Thanksgiving and Easter.

It wasn’t until the 1950s that Halloween became more and more dominated by and associated with candy. That’s also when companies began advertising candy corn around Halloween.

Photo Credit: Pixabay

Today, the National Confectioners Association estimates that 35 million pounds of candy corn are sold every year. But you better believe a good chunk of those sales come in October.

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Even More Spooky Ghost Stories from Across the United States

No matter where you grew up, there were likely some urban legends and spooky stories that everyone knew. Maybe they were about that old abandoned house that no one ever dared get too close to. Or perhaps they were about the woods where someone went missing many years ago.

Every state and every community has those delightfully scary stories, and here are 10 of the creepiest from different states.

1. Alabama

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Some of the people who boarded the ship Eliza Battle in February 1858 had no idea that they would never get off the doomed vessel. On March 1, the ship that was bound for Mobile and was loaded with cotton bales caught fire and 33 passengers and crew members died.

People say that sometimes you can see the burning Eliza Battle rise from the Tombigbee River, trying to make it all the way to its final destination.

2. Nebraska

Photo Credit: Public Domain

If you dare to venture to Blackbird Hill in Nebraska on October 17, listen closely to see if you hear a woman screaming at the top of the hill. The voice belongs to a woman who was murdered by her jealous husband. The man stabbed his wife and jumped from the cliff. Spoooooooky.

3. Indiana

Photo Credit: Flickr,w.marsh

The town of Tunnelton got its name from all the railroad tunnels that surround it. The one called “The Big Tunnel” in town is supposedly haunted by a man who was beheaded during the construction of the structure.

Another ghost known to roam the tunnel is Henry Dixon, a watchman who was murdered there in 1908. His murder was never solved, and some believe that Dixon roams the eerie tunnel seeking justice.

4. Iowa

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Located in Cedar Rapids, Coe College is said to be haunted by a student named Helen Esther Roberts, who died during the 1918 flu pandemic. Roberts used to haunt Voorhees Hall, where she lived, and is thought to live in an old grandfather clock.

Students claim to have seen a ghost while the clock was being installed, a ghost that pulls the covers off of their beds and even plays the piano in the lobby on occasion. Others claim that the clock sometimes stops working at 2:53, the time when Roberts died. The clock was moved to Stuart Hall in the 1970s, and that’s where Roberts now plies her ghostly trade.

5. Maine

Of course the home state of Stephen King has a haunted lighthouse. It’s located on Seguin Island, two miles off the coast of Maine. The legend says that a lighthouse keeper and his wife moved into the structure in the mid-1800s and that the man had a piano and sheet music delivered from the mainland so his wife could play.

The wife learned one song and played it over and over, eventually driving her husband insane. The lighthouse keeper smashed the piano to bits with an axe before he murdered his wife: he then took his own life. Visitors say they sometimes still hear the ghostly song being played, or that they see the lighthouse keeper walking around carrying an axe. Is that a Stephen King story, or what?!?

6. Michigan

Photo Credit: Unsplash,Henry Desro

If you happen to be near the town of Saugatuck in western Michigan, beware of the Melon Heads. Local folklore tells us that these creatures with small bodies and oversized heads haunt the woods around the town.

Some believe the Melon Heads were 19th-century children who suffered from hydrocephaly that made their heads swell and that a local hospital was conducting terrifying experiments on them. The little haunters are said to tap on car windows (especially if you’re parked and gettin’ it on).

7. Arkansas

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

During the battle of Poison Spring in April 1864, Union General Frederick Steele took over the home of a mailman named John Chidester to use as his headquarters. Chidester was thought to be a Confederate spy, and Union troops fired into the walls where they believed the man was hiding in a closet. Chidester fled to Texas, but the bullet holes can still be seen in the home.

Some believe that Chidester’s ghost still haunts the home, telling unwanted visitors to “Get Out!”

8. North Carolina

Photo Credit: Public Domain

Edward Teach, better known as the famous pirate Blackbeard, reportedly haunts a cove on Ocracoke Island on North Carolina’s Outer Banks. After his capture, Blackbeard was beheaded and his head was displayed on a British ship. His body was thrown to the sea.

An area known as Teach’s Hole is known to be haunted by a headless body splashing around in the water. Some other people say Blackbeard haunts the area with a lantern, searching for his lost head.

9. Oregon

Photo Credit: Pixabay

The Kuhn Cinema in Lebanon, Oregon has been around since 1936. Locals say that a teenager once plummeted to her death from the theater’s second balcony and has haunted the joint ever since. Some even say that her image occasionally flickers onto the screen, terrifying viewers. Keep ahold of that popcorn.

10. Wisconsin

Photo Credit: Flickr,Al

There’s something very strange happening at Riverside Cemetery in Appleton. The tombstone of a woman named Kate “Kitty” Blood is said to ooze, you guessed it, blood. One rumor says that Blood was murdered by her husband. Another says that she was a witch.

The truth is that Blood died from tuberculosis at the age of 23. But her creepy name and the isolated location of her tombstone has become part of the local lore in Appleton.

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Here Are 10 of the Spookiest Ghost Stories from the United States

When you have a country with as many states as the USA, you are bound to have plenty of spooky ghost stories from all over.

So, here are 10 of the spookiest ghost stories from different parts of the U.S.

1. Alaska

Photo Credit: Public Domain

The Golden North Hotel in Skagway is the setting for Alaska’s creepiest ghost tale. Legend has it that a woman named Mary moved into the hotel during the Klondike Gold Rush with her fiancé, a man who went by the moniker “Klondike Ike.”

Ike set off to prospect gold and find fame and fortune, but he never returned from the rugged Alaskan wilderness. Mary locked herself in her hotel room and waited for her beau. Eventually, hotel workers broke down Mary’s door and found her dead in the room wearing her wedding dress. The story goes that “Scary Mary” still roams the halls, occasionally checking in on hotel guests to make sure Ike isn’t bedding down with anyone else.

2. California

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

What place beside the infamous Alcatraz prison would make this list for California? The foreboding island prison in San Francisco Bay operated from 1934-1963 and housed the likes of Al Capone and James “Whitey” Bulger behind its walls.

The most famous ghost to roam Alcatraz’s hallowed grounds is a prisoner who once called cell 14D his home. Apparently, the prisoner screamed all night, claiming that a ghastly creature with glowing eyes was trying to kill him. The guards ignored his cries, and the next morning the inmate was found strangled to death. A doctor said the injuries could not have been self-inflicted and that the man had strange wounds on his neck.

3. Kansas

Photo Credit: YouTube

The sand hills surrounding Hutchinson are known to be creepy as hell and for good reason: a creature known as the Hamburger Man is rumored to haunt the hills, looking for a fresh kill.

Rumor has it that the local legend is only partially man or perhaps survived a horrific accident and is mutilated beyond belief. One thing is for certain: the Hamburger Man is said to carry a large knife and he likes to abduct people and eat them for dinner. Chew on that one for a little while…

4. Georgia

Photo Credit: Flickr,Peter Salanki

Lake Lanier in Georgia is said by locals to be cursed. The Army Corps of Engineers flooded nearly 60 square miles of homes, farmland, and businesses in the 1950s to create the large lake. Cemeteries were relocated to accommodate the project.

Freak accidents and mysterious drownings have plagued the lake and some people who have almost died in the waters have described being pulled underneath by a phantom force.

5. Idaho

Photo Credit: Flickr,DieselDemon

The spooky Old Idaho Penitentiary operated from 1872-1973 and housed more than 13,000 prisoners over 100 years. One of the most notorious inmates to call the jail home was Raymond Allen Snowden, who was known as “Idaho’s Jack the Ripper.”

Snowden was executed in the jail in 1957 and died a slow, painful death. His neck didn’t break when the rope dropped, and it took 15 minutes for Snowden to suffocate. It’s rumored that the killer haunts the premises. Visitors to the jail have described hearing strange sounds and voices and being overcome by extreme sadness.

6. Illinois

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

Growing up near Chicago, I learned about the story of Resurrection Mary at a young age…and it always haunted me. The legend of the ghost says that during the Great Depression, a young woman named Mary went a dance hall near Chicago. Mary got into an argument with her boyfriend and decided to walk home along Archer Avenue, where she was killed by a hit-and-run driver.

Mary was buried in nearby Resurrection Cemetery and generations of Chicagoans have reported seeing a young girl in a white dress hitchhiking along Archer Avenue late at night. Sometimes she’s even picked up but disappears from the back seat before reaching her final destination: Resurrection Cemetery.

7. Colorado

Photo Credit: pxhere

The Buffalo Rose Saloon in Golden is said to be haunted by a young girl who drowned in a swimming pool in the saloon’s basement in the 1920s. The spirit of the girl is said to still roam the hallways and skip up and down stairs.

An employee who works nights at the bar described the basement where the pool was located as “very bad. Sometimes you can’t go [down] there.”

8. Louisiana

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

The swampy lands of Louisiana are ripe for ghost stories. One legend comes from the state’s Cajun communities and centers around cauchemar: witches that arrive at night, immobilize people in their beds, and ride them like horses. Seriously. Think sleep paralysis but way more terrifying.

Even if a person attempts to scream while being attacked by a cauchemar, it’s no use: the scream can never escape someone’s throat. People have reported having marks and bruises from where a cauchemar beats them a whip. Creepy indeed.

9. Minnesota

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

The Palmer House Hotel in Sauk Centre attracts ghost hunters from all over the country. A prostitute named Lucy was rumored to have worked in a brothel where the hotel now stands.

Lucy and other women died in a tragic fire at the brothel, and Lucy is not happy with men in the afterlife. So she’s taken to haunting the Palmer House, naturally. Lucy is known to slam doors and make the temperature drop drastically when a man is present. Apparently, Room 17 is her favorite haunt.

10. Montana

Photo Credit: iStock

We already covered Resurrection Mary, but another creepy hitchhiker from haunted lore is the Phantom Hitchhiker of Black Horse Lake. If you happen to drive along Highway 87, you might see a Native American man wearing a jean jacket appear out of nowhere and smash into your windshield.

Locals say the man died when he was hit by a car and has been reenacting the traumatic scene ever since. Keep your eyes peeled…

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Someone Call Charlie Brown, Cuz This is the Largest Pumpkin Ever

A man in New Hampshire recently set a new record for the largest pumpkin ever grown in North America! If that doesn’t get you excited for Fall, then we don’t know what will!

Steve Geddes broke the record last month at the Deerfield Fair in New Hampshire. Geddes’ massive prize weighed a whopping 2,528 pounds, shattering the previous record.

Photo Credit: Facebook,Deerfield Fair

Geddes won $6,000 in prize money for his behemoth.

Photo Credit: Facebook,Deerfield Fair

Even though pumpkins are extremely American (at least I think they are), the largest one ever grown in the world is actually from Belgium back in 2016. That monster weighed 2,624 pounds. Let’s hope Mr. Geddes keeps growing pumpkins and brings that title back to the USA where it belongs!

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12+ Discontinued Products That We Hope Make a Big Comeback

Remember Jello Pudding Pops? How about Ecto Cooler?

We all have products from our past and our childhoods that we wish would make comebacks in a huge way. Here are 15 that we’re hoping hit the shelves again sooner than later.

1. Pudding Pops

Photo Credit: Reddit

2. Planters Cheez Balls

Photo Credit: Reddit

3. Sour Altoids

Photo Credit: Reddit

4. Creme Savers

Photo Credit: Reddit

5. Clearly Canadian

Photo Credit: Reddit

6. Ecto Cooler

Photo Credit: Reddit

7. Wendy’s Spicy Chicken Nuggets

Photo Credit: Reddit

8. Snapple Elements

Photo Credit: Reddit

9. Fruitopia

10. Coke with Lime

Photo Credit: Reddit

11. Sprite Re-Mix

12. Swoops

13. Cereal Straws

14.

15. Butterfinger BB’s


So what do you all say?!? Let’s get some campaigns going so we can get these products back in our hands!

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5+ Great Facts to Share with Your Friends

Good thing Neil deGrasse Tyson had a change of heart about his career.

If not, we might be seeing him in the flesh, lighting himself on fire.

Don’t believe me? Read through this fact set and you’ll see what I’m talking about.

1. Security blanket

Photo Credit: did you know?

2. A real tongue twister

Photo Credit: did you know?

3. Wish we could see it…

Photo Credit: did you know?

4. Here come the waterworks

Photo Credit: did you know?

5. Good career move

Photo Credit: did you know?

6. Hot rod kitties

Photo Credit: did you know?

Remember: share these facts far and wide!

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10+ Absolutely Hilarious Art History Memes that’ll Make Your Day

Life can be rough, and sometimes you just need some sweet memes to get through the day. If it’s looking like one of those days for you, then you’re in luck, because we’ve got some absolutely hilarious ones below. And if you’re an art history fan? Double bonus!

#14. The most apt description of morning wood I’ve ever seen.

Photo Credit: Tumblr

#13. Drink up!

Photo Credit: Instagram

#12. Every time ugh.

Photo Credit: Instagram

#11. Perfection.

Photo Credit: Tumblr

#10. So wrong, so right.

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#9. Priorities, you know.

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#8. I’m surprised he’s not snapping his fingers.

Photo Credit: Tumblr

#7. The tutorials make it look so easy.

Photo Credit: Instagram

#6. Accurate.

Photo Credit: Twitter

#5. Your horse always knows.

Photo Credit: Tumblr

#4. Napoleon Born2party.

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#3. If it works it works.

Photo Credit: Tumblr

#2. What other caption could you use with that face?

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#1. Real life.

Photo Credit: Tumblr

That’s it! You can now go about your regularly scheduled day but with a smile.

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People Born After 1999 Will Never Understand These 20 Tweets

Today’s pop culture makes absolutely no sense to me and I never have a clue what anyone is talking about anymore. It’s pretty confusing! I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty glad I grew up (mostly) in the 1990s.

But the joke’s on them. Those damn kids don’t know what they missed out on. And these tweets nail it.

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7 Cool Items That Were Created During Hard Times

It’s interesting to learn about where things like traditions and pop culture phenomenons were born. It’s often not how you’d expect. That is definitely the case for these 7 things that are now considered cool…but were once necessary evils.

#7. Dr. Martens

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

These popular shoes were born of trauma – a German doctor named Klaus Martens made his own orthopedic boots with airbags in the thick insoles to compensate for the pain in his injured leg. Comfort and durability are always a winner, though, and the shoes have been popular since WWII.

#6. Disposable pads

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Disposable pads first appeared in the late 19th and early 20th century when the people who had been manufacturing absorbent cloth for wounded soldiers decided they could make additional cash by adapting it to save women a bunch of loads of laundry.

#5. Instant coffee

Photo Credit: Pixabay

If you’re a coffee snob, you may think instant coffee is an abomination. You probably wouldn’t be so picky if you’d suffered through the economic crisis of the 1930s, though, when the world market price per pound of coffee beans fell from 22 to 5 cents. Brazil had decided to destroy its excess of coffee. Nescafe stepped in to help develop a technique for drying and processing coffee grains.

The soldiers of the Second World War were grateful.

#4. Viagra

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Turns out that this drug was not invented to help men in the bedroom – it was originally thought to treat angina pectoris and coronary heart disease. It did neither, but it did increase blood flow to pelvic organs.

And now, someone is super rich, I assume.

#3. The “bob” haircut

Photo Credit: American Red Cross

Historically, only certain types of women dared to wear their hair short – those who earned their own living, or the poorest of the poor who had to sell their own locks to survive, or even because of illnesses like typhus – but with the advent of WWI, nurses jumped on the “bob.”

As anyone who works in an unpredictable and often messy environment can tell you (or stays home with a toddler), long hair just gets in the way.

#2. Ballet flats and loafers

When it came to war, no one was much concerned about the fashion sense of the people at home. People had to adapt, and when fashion designer Claire McCardell was in search of a way to bring ladies the laceless shoes they wanted, she took ballet shoes and glued a firm base to them. Voila – the modern ballet flat was born.

As far as loafers, the men are all about comfort. They come from Norwegian peasant shoes that were sewn by fishermen and called “loafers” in England since they were meant to be worn at home or at rest.

#1. Nutella

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

That’s right – everyone’s favorite faux healthy snack food came from someone’s hard times. Baker and confectioner Pietro Ferrero was forced to add hazelnuts, which were plentiful where he lived in Italy, to his chocolate paste because of a post-war shortage.

It originally came in a solid bar (be still my heart) but when it melted one day, Ferrero kept his head and smeared it on bread – and a hit was born. Way back in 1946!

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